Casino School

How to Play Craps

Craps can be a daunting game for the beginner. It’s fast-paced and involves a range of bets and commands that can seem like a foreign language.

Craps is a very popular US casino dice game played against other players or the house. Craps developed from a simplification of the Old English game Hazard. Its origins are highly complex and may date to the Crusades, later being influenced by French gamblers.
Craps can be a daunting game for the beginner. The table seems to have mesmerising amount of bets, the players are barking out commands in what seems to be a foreign language, and the pace is so fast you never get chance to ask a question.

If this is how you view the game, we have good news. There is one fundamental bet, the “pass line” bet, that almost all players make. You can easily get by knowing just this bet your first time. As you get more experienced, you can add more bets to your selection. After just your first five minutes, you should feel comfortable with the flow of the game.

The Pass Line

The pass line is the most fundamental bet in craps; almost every player at the table bets on it. If you only understand one bet in craps, it should be this one.

The pass line bet is put on the pass line itself on a come out roll. You can tell it is a come out roll if there is a black laminated marker on the table that says “off”. If the come out roll is a 7 or 11, then you win even money. If the come out roll is a 2, 3, or 12, then you lose. If any other total is rolled (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10) that total is called “the point”. The dealer will turn over the marker that says “off” to the white “on” side, and place it on an area of the table with that number, to help the players remember what the point is. Then, the shooter will roll the dice until he either rolls that same point again, or a seven. If a seven comes before the point, then you lose. If the point is rolled first, then you win even money.

Do not make a pass line bet after the come out roll. This is allowed but is highly ill-advised because the value of a pass line bet is diminished after the come out roll.

The house edge on the pass line is only 1.41%, which is not bad compared to most other bets on the table and other games in the casino.

The Flow of the Craps Game

Everybody at the craps table has a chance to roll the dice. The dice travels clockwise around the table from one craps player to another, so every shooter has his/her turn. If you choose, you may decline to throw, and the dice will be offered by a stickman to a player next to you.

Suppose it’s your turn and you decide to shoot. When you shoot, you are required to make a Pass Line bet or a Don’t Pass bet. If you bet on the Pass Line, you and all other players making the same bet are called right bettors. If your bet is a Don’t Pass bet, you and everybody else with the same bet are called wrong bettors. Pass and Don’t Pass bettors are also called line bettors. “Right” and “Wrong” in these instances are casino terms to distinguish two kinds of players. Casino use of these terms has nothing to do with their usual meaning.

You can be an automatic winner or a loser on a come-out roll. If you are a right bettor, you are an instant winner if you roll a total of a 7 or 11. It is also called to throw a natural. You lose if you roll craps – a 2, 3 or 12. If you bet wrong, it is a loss in case of a 7 or 11, and you win with a 2 or 3. A 12, however, is a standoff – otherwise, a player would have an advantage against the house with a Don’t Pass bet. Casino bars 6-6 to have almost as much advantage on the Don’t Pass (1.402%) as it has on a Pass bet (1.414%). In some casinos the 2 is barred instead of the 12, but the house edge is still the same, because both numbers can be made with only one combination of the dice (1-1, or 6-6). If you win or lose automatically on a come-out roll, you still retain the dice and start a new come-out roll.

Suppose you throw a point – a 4,5,6,8,9 or 10 – on the come-out roll. In that case you continue to roll the dice until a point or a 7 is rolled. If you are a right bettor, you bet with the dice and you win if a point is repeated before a 7 is rolled. You lose if a 7 appears before a point. If you are a wrong bettor you bet against the dice and you win if a 7 is rolled before a point. If, for. ex, the point is a 6, then only a 6 and a 7 determine the win or the loss for Pass and Don’t Pass bettors. All other dice totals rolled will be neutral throws for the line bettors. As soon as the point is repeated or a 7 is thrown, the shoot is over and the following roll will be a new come-out roll for a new round of play. As long as you win, you keep the dice and continue to shoot. If you seven-out, the dice goes to a new shooter.

There are many other craps bets you can make, far too many to mention here. Some of them you can make at any time and others – only after come-out roll. The best way to learn is to practise on one of our partners free play tables.